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"The mixture of imagination, language, and historical consciousness in this book is marvelous."―Adrienne Rich, Barnard Women Poets Prize citation

"The Guide" is a former South Korean dissident and tour guide who speaks a fluid fabricated language; "the Historian" interviews the Guide and annotates the commentaries. Cathy Park Hong's passionate and artful poem sequence weaves an ultimately revitalizing dialogue on shared experience in a globalized world, using language as subversion and disguise.

"Kitchens of the Great Midwest" by J. Ryan Stradal
Each chapter tells the story of a single dish and character, at once capturing the zeitgeist of the Midwest, the rise of foodie culture, and delving into the ways food creates community and a sense of identity.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

The Dance Dance Revolution is a mythic story which takes the form of a poetic tale: here it took place in 1988 and the protagonist is a 'tour guide' of the Desert, a fictional resort city modeled after the world's finest hotels and capitals. Readers of epics like Dante's INFERNO will find this akin in structure and drama, offering up an invented language blending extinct English dialects with Latin, Spanish, Korean and other pidgins. No lightweight read, it's a pick for college-level collections specializing in modern literary poetic structure and is especially recommended for classroom assignment.

Cathy Park Hong is amazing, and Dance Dance Revolution is a beautiful example of her vision. Once you adjust to the hypnotic rhythms of her invented patois, you are given a vision of a future that is alternately funny, sad, and tragic. Also, loved the excerpts from her upcoming book in the Paris Review. One of my favorite writers.